Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Tenchi or I'd be rich and making an episode for fun rather than write this fic for fun.
A/N: Yay! This is my first chapter actually written by me and only me! Credit still goes to Erisu of course.
Chapter 4
Tenchi arranged the bedding Washu had given him and tried to get comfortable. As he laid down his thoughts drifted to everything that had happened in the last few weeks. Only three weeks ago everything had been normal; Ayeka and Ryoko constantly fighting, tending to his shrine duties and swordsmanship training… everything had been normal. Then came the day of Ayeka's attack, he still felt incredibly guilty about it, he should have been able to get to her as soon as she screamed, but he had been too late. Ever since her attack Ryoko had teased Ayeka less often, so they didn't fight very much anymore, and it never becomes physical. He had worked it out with his grandfather so he only had sword practice once a week now and no longer had the shrine duties. With all his free time, especially since he'd graduated high school a few months ago, he constantly tended to Ayeka. He felt that after all she had been through, particularly considering what they had learned today, she needed a friend to help her and always be by her side. Ryoko hadn't been very happy about all the attention he was giving Ayeka, but the only other person who could have stayed by her side was Sasami; who was too little to be of much help. After explaining this to Ryoko and asking if she wanted to be the one helping Ayeka all day, she backed off. Tenchi vowed to find the person who had attacked Ayeka and 'rip him a new one' before drifting off to sleep.
As he slept, Tenchi had a disturbing dream. He found himself on the familiar path to the shrine. He noticed a shadowy figure and decided to follow it. As it went down the steps he saw Ayeka in the distance, the figure must have seen her too as it hid in the bushes. Tenchi started to get a bad feeling about this unknown person and went to Ayeka to warn her away. He started to worry when he realized she couldn't hear him, apparently all he could do was observe. As Ayeka passed the figure's hiding place it jumped out and attacked her. After she was unconscious and tied up the figure dragged her into the clearing where Tenchi did his sword fighting practice. Tenchi followed and did all he could to stop this, but it was as if he were a ghost. When they reached the practice area Tenchi had to run away, as far as he could, he knew what was about to happen and didn't want to witness it. As he ran Tenchi heard a recurring scream of agony, he was surprised as it couldn't be Ayeka, she was mercifully unconscious; then he realized it was he who was screaming. At this realization he awoke with a start in a cold sweat. He'd been having this dream every night since Ayeka's attack, he hadn't told anyone about it because it scared him so much. He didn't understand how he could have such a vivid dream about that incident when he wasn't even there, he'd have to have a mental connection with Ayeka similar to the one Washu and Ryoko shared to experience the dream he'd just had. He dismissed that thought as impossible and decided he would talk to Washu about it when she was done. After getting comfortable again Tenchi drifted off into a restless but mercifully dreamless sleep.
In the operating room, Washu was having some disturbing thoughts of her own. When Ayeka had been attacked all of her security systems had gone down, preventing her from locating the princess and her attacker instantly. She had discovered evidence of someone tampering with the controls in her lab after the attack, but the perpetrator had erased all trace of his presence, so she wasn't even able to get a visual record of him. Someone able to do all these things had to have a power on par with Tenchi's and have knowledge of her methods to boot. To her knowledge, there was no one in the Universe alive that fit that description; although there were a few people that had the knowledge to foil her security systems, no one could have gotten into her lab without sufficient power. Since only she and the family could enter her lab freely, she was quite confused how someone had gotten in without blowing up the door or leaving some other evidence of forced entry.
Washu pulled her train of thought back to the operation. The longest and hardest part of this was locating an acceptable sample. Even her advanced scanners took awhile to scan the entire fetus for DNA and evaluate the best sample that could safely be extracted without hindering the baby's natural growth. Once the sample was located it wouldn't take more than a few minutes to finish the operation. Then her scanners would work on that sample for eight or nine hours to separate the parents' DNA and identify the strands owner's. She was interrupted from her thoughts by a loud beeping sound; the scanners had finally found an acceptable sample. Washu took her Sub-Dermal Sampler and quickly extracted the DNA. After double-checking to make sure she had the right sample, she put the DNA in her special DNA Analyzer. They should all have the answer they were waiting for after breakfast tomorrow. After cleaning up from the operation and putting Ayeka in a bed in the main part of her lab, Washu headed to bed herself.
In the lab, Tenchi was the first to wake up. As he got up he noticed Ayeka in a normal bed. Looking at her, she looked so peaceful and content as she slept, like nothing had changed in the past few weeks. He sighed and went upstairs to get ready for the day; today they would find out who Ayeka's attacker was and he'd vowed to make him pay.
Washu slowly woke up in her bedroom. This was fairly unusual as she usually just fell asleep wherever she was when she became too exhausted to continue; but, although the operation last night had drained her, she had made sure to get good sleep for the upcoming excitement that was sure to come. Getting out of bed she quickly got dressed and went to check on the DNA Analyzer. As she'd expected, there was still an hour left to go so she went to check on Ayeka. Checking her scanners she saw that nothing was wrong and decided to wake the princess up.
"Ayeka… it's time to get up, breakfast will be ready soon." Ayeka stirred, but didn't wake up.
"Come on Ayeka, you need to wake up." Still the princess wouldn't wake up.
Washu was starting to get annoyed. She summoned a bucket of water and was about to dump it over the bed when Tenchi walked in. Seeing what Washu was about to do, he tried to stop her.
"Washu! What are you doing?"
"Well… I was just going to wake Ayeka up."
"With a bucket of water? Why don't you let me do that, you can go help Sasami set the table for breakfast."
Dejectedly, Washu agreed and left the lab. After Washu left, Tenchi just watched Ayeka sleep for a minute. It was odd, but since this had all started, Tenchi found that it was easy to find some peace whenever he watched her sleep. He realized it was getting late and decided to wake her up. Gently shaking her shoulder, he spoke softly to her, trying to wake her up.
"Ayeka… It's time to get up. Breakfast should be ready now."
Ayeka woke up rather suddenly to the sound of Tenchi's voice. Opening her eyes, she wiped the sleep out of them, not quite believing what she saw.
"Lord… Lord Tenchi? What are you doing here?"
"It's breakfast time silly, I was just waking you up. Come on, let's get you to your room so you can get ready."
Tenchi got Ayeka's crutches for her and helped her off the bed. They both blushed a little when he did this; she still had the crab paper gown on from the operation and it was quite thin. Once Tenchi got her to her room he waited outside her door for her to get dressed. When they both finally got to breakfast it was 6:15 and everyone had already finished their meals. Fortunately, the food was still hot; so they both had a quick plate and helped Sasami clean up. Once they were done cleaning up Tenchi looked at his watch.
"Oh no! It's a quarter to seven! If I don't hurry up I'll miss the bus."
Nobuyuki was coming down the stairs when he heard Tenchi. He'd already called his son's school excusing him today; they would need everyone available to deal with the news they would receive today.
"Don't be ridiculous Tenchi, I already excused you from school, you need to be here today."
"You did? Why didn't you tell me, I wouldn't have gotten my school uniform on if I knew that."
"Sorry Tenchi, I forgot to tell you."
"That's O.K. Thanks for letting me stay today."
"No problem, I'm even staying home today, there's no reason you couldn't."
"You are? Great! It's been awhile since you've had a day off. After we get through this morning; if we aren't chasing anyone down, let's do something fun."
"I think that's a great idea Tenchi, we haven't done something fun with the whole family for awhile now."
As Nobuyuki sat down to eat some heated leftovers, Tenchi decided it was time to talk to Washu about his dream. He knew he should probably see a psychologist, but Washu was the best option he had. Besides, the results of the DNA test should be ready soon.
In the lab, Washu was watching her DNA Analyzer count down the seconds until the results were ready. Just when the timer reached thirty seconds Tenchi walked in. He looked a little upset, but then, wasn't everyone since all this had happened?
"Little Washu? Do you know anything about psychology? I've been having a very bad dream that's disturbed me since this whole 'incident' started and I guess I just need someone to talk to."
"Of course, I know plenty about psychology, I'm happy to help you Tenchi, what was your dream about?"
"Well… It's about the attack on Ayeka. When the dream starts I see a blurry figure and decide to follow it. As I follow it, it doesn't seem to notice me but it hides in the bushes off the path to the shrine. While we're sitting there I see Ayeka in the distance. Feeling uneasy about the whole situation I go and try to warn her away, but she acts like I'm not there. When she gets to the hiding figure it jumps her and attacks her. This is where the dream ended until recently. When we found out she had been raped, the dream continued from this point. The figure dragged Ayeka off to my sword practice area and I had to witness it… it was horrible and I couldn't do anything to stop it."
While Tenchi had been explaining his dream, the results of the test had come up. Washu was, to say the least, surprised. Once Tenchi was done explaining he was sobbing, but with his story Washu was able to put most of the pieces of the puzzle together. She needed to do some tests on Tenchi to figure out the rest, but she already had an idea of what might be behind all this.
"Tenchi, why don't I run some tests on you, I think I may be able to find the origin of your dream and keep you from having it again. I may have an idea why it's so vivid, but I want to confirm my theory before I tell you."
"O.K. Washu. Thank you for helping me with this."
"It's no problem Tenchi, I have to repay your hospitality somehow, don't I?"
"That's not necessary Little Washu. I'm happy you all are here, you guys don't have to 'repay' me for anything."
"Well Tenchi, I still feel obligated to at least help, now lets get started."
Washu hooked Tenchi up to one of her many machines and began her testing. Soon they would all know who'd attacked Ayeka and she knew she would have to break it to the family gently. She just hoped that Ayeka would be able to take the news well…
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A/N: Well, that's the end of my first chapter written only by me! Next time, we find out who Ayeka's attacker was if you can't already guess and much more to come. Remember, I am always open to ideas, so please, email and review.